See our feature in the Times Herald-Record:

Take a virtual tour of our Middletown pew refinishing facility in the video above.

Preparations for Pope Francis’ visit to New York City in September have kept workers busy at a North Street business for more than three years.

The Keck Group’s church pew restoration plant expects to soon make its last delivery of pews and furnishings to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan. The batch includes presider side chairs to seat the pope and Cardinal Timothy Dolan at the main altar.

Spotlight Project

Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral

Construction of The Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral was completed in 1815, and at the time was the third Catholic Church organized in the United States.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, and designated a Basilica by his holiness Pope Benedict XV1 on March 17, 2010.
The Keck Group was commissioned to restore the pews to their original glory beginning in October of 2014. This is an ongoing project and will be highlighted in future web site additions.

News

Once again, the busy month of August for end of summer installs, included the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Syracuse.
With the close cooperation of Ed and Mike King, the installation was concluded in one week without a hitch.
The original plan was to purchase new pews, but with our persuasion to have an existing pew refinished as a sample for comparison to new, the Cathedral chose to restore.
See the refinished pews after installation.

We finished installing the refinished pews in the beautifully restored Cathedral in May 2017. Our work was completed well before the commitment date of mid-May, and the modified and restored pews are one of the more vocal points of the restoration. The pews were modified for comfort, while still keeping the historical significance of the original pew design.

The Keck Group is once again back at St. Patrick’s in 2017 employing a modern epoxy-based anchoring system.
Additionally, the Lady Chapel has been removed, as well as all of the South Transept Pews, to facilitate a heavy duty ramp from 51st street, through the south doors, across the nave, and up the stairs to the hallway surrounding the sanctuary. Heavy glass panels are being erected at the entrance of the Lady Chapel in order to secure a somber relevance to the space, rather than the original wide open entrance.
Although we refinished the Lady Chapel pews twenty years ago, the Cathedral wanted to match them to the recently refinished pews in the nave and transepts, so this was accomplished prior to reinstallation. Included were new kneelers and Atwood Hamlin Pew Form Cushions..
Work was completed in early October, 2017.